History

Sweepstakes History

Consumer Product Marketers (CPM)'s have been using sweepstakes and contests for 15-20 years to promote their products and services.
Giving consumers a chance to win cash or prizes increases their excitement and thus the CPM's market share and drives sales and profits higher.
Some of the most popular sweepstakes that merchandisers and retailers use include:
- Instant Win Games with game pieces delivered on-pack or in-pack.
- Match game pieces against displays or web site to win instantly.
- Automatic free entry with purchase via coupon or free entry form.
- Randomly selected winning number in the sweepstakes.
- Entry with or without proof of purchase requested: UPC code number, serial number, or style number.
- Survey entry forms to build database.
- Quiz entry forms to test audience’s knowledge of the product or service.
- Skill contest to generate publicity or require use of the sponsor’s products.
Probably one of the most famous sweepstakes is the McDonald’s® Monopoly® Promotion that has been run twice a year for as long as most of us can remember.

Many well known Fortune 500 companies have been using sweepstakes effectively and will continue doing so. Why? Because the concept works.
Consumer Product Marketers, wanting to be effective in driving sales, favor this method because of demonstrated consumer excitement.
Merchandisers sell more product during these promotions.
Upgrade the customer to buy more profitable or more items using the compelling nature of the sweepstakes.
Shoppers seek out companies that offer sweepstakes to enhance the value of the product being purchased.
Merchandisers and retailers know this and continue to seek out new and exciting sweepstakes to offer the public in conjunction with their products.

Coupons were born in 1894 by the druggist who bought the Coca-Cola® formula. He gave out handwritten tickets for a free glass of his new fountain drink.
A year later, in 1895, C. W. Post distributed the first grocery coupon worth one cent towards his new health cereal, Grape Nuts.
By the 1930’s coupons were a staple in the American households because of the depression. Needing to save money in any fashion possible, households became dependent on clipping coupons and saving money on their weekly grocery bills.
Supermarkets springing up across the country and coupon clearinghouses helped drive the coupon craze through the 1940’s and 50’s.
By 1965, half of Americans were using coupons.
By 2002, shoppers were saving $3 billion annually by redeeming 3.8 billion coupons on a variety of product categories.
Today, over 79% of all the people in the U.S. use coupons. This truly makes couponing a part of American life.

Introduce consumer products.
Promote brand names.
Increase unit sales in short bursts.
Impress consumers and retailers alike with their offers.
Capitalize on seasonal awareness.
Nearly 80% of shoppers would use coupons if given the opportunity according to the Coupon Council of the Promotional Marketing Association.
Consumer Product Companies invest nearly $6 billion per year in creating, marketing and distributing over 300 billion coupons in the U.S. alone.
The time problems for the consumer are:
1. Planning what to shop for and where to get it.
2. Finding the coupons they will use.
3. Clipping them
4. Organizing them
5. Finally remembering to bring them along to the proper store before they expire.
This takes them from 20 minutes to 120 minutes per week according to the Coupon Council of the PMA. These problems contribute to redemption rates being as low as 1%.
Most of today’s coupons come from sources such as FSI’s (Free Standing Inserts) and Direct Mail Packets. Newspaper subscription rates have been shrinking, especially Sunday papers with all its supplements, making coupons harder to find / less available.